Obama tells critics to “grab a mop”

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President Barack Obama fired back on Tuesday at conservative critics who say he has not accomplished enough in his first nine months in office.

He told them they should “grab a mop” to help him clean up the mess he inherited from Republican President George W. Bush.

Many Republican critics say the continued sluggishness in the economy and the rise in the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent were a sign that Obama policies on the economy were not effective.

But at a pair of Democratic fund-raisers in New York, the president emphasized the dire straits the economy was in when he took over from Bush.

“I don’t mind cleaning up the mess that some other folks made. That’s what I signed up to do,” Obama said. “But while I’m there mopping the floor, I don’t want somebody standing there saying, you’re not mopping fast enough or you’re not holding the mop the right way.”

Good for President Obama that he has the fortitude and moxie to tell it like it is to those who hide their head in the sand. Clearly, the ENITRE world knows that Obama did not create the economic tailspin the U.S. is in; at least some people in the U.S. and everyone around the planet can acknowledge that truth! Republicans are a bunch of whiners, just like Bush. Why don’t Republicans acknowledge that Bush, one of their own, got us into this #$%*&@* mess! Idiots! Go Obama – tell it like it is; everyone else, blow it out your ear!

Way to go President Obama, you tell them
You are doing a great job. It always takes
a Democrat President to clean up the mess of
a Republican President. Yet the Republicans
never learn they just keep screwing the American
people.
Get a mop Republicans and make it a huge mop
and at least help us clean up after what you
and your President if that is what you call Bush
for all the mess and disasters he and Cheney has
caused America and her people.

the rate of foreclosures has gone up 23% this year,this is the fault of democratic politicians forcing the leading community to give mortgages to people who could not afford them?The deficit is now 3 times more than when Bush was in office at, 1.42 trillion dollars and climbing.Unemployment was 5% when Bush was in office,it is now at 9.8% and climbing.I think Obama needs to put down the mop and get a Squeeze,his policies are not working

Geez… how about a little cheese to go with that whine. I wonder if he’s sent GWB a Thank-You note for all of the political cover he’s provided. Will anything EVER be the responsibility of the current POTUS? Time to man-up and quit blaming everyone else and shooting down anyone who dares disagree with you. Sorry my friend, but criticism comes with the title.

I’m not suggesting that GWB was our best president, but one thing I appreciated was that the buck stopped with him. Go back and look at the economy when HE took office. It was TANKING hard. But he never once (that I can find or recall) blamed ‘the previous administration’. Say what you want about his own decisions, but that was a characteristic that I really appreciated and miss.

Touche. I am afraid it will take a looong, loong time before anyone can mop up Bush big mess. To blame it on Obama is not fair. He is doing his best to untangle what his predecessor did to the country. Critics are trying to pull a fast one here. With such a dire situation, any sensible person knows it will take a while.

Being ‘sensible’ is not the key here. One can be stupid but still honest.

What I see here is many dishonest folks that refuse to admit that the **** years were catastrophic for the US as a whole. Nothing was taken care of for 8 years.

To say that B. Obama has done nothing in 9 months is disingenuous at best.

9/11 could have been a wake-up call. Instead it became a beacon for sheer stupidity and unbridled ‘decisions’ made under the guise of ‘god approval’.

If anything, the past 8 years have taught me that the lesser evil is in the Democratic Party. I stayed on the side lines before, voting on issues more than anything else. Now, for me to vote on anything that is ‘represented by a republican party’ it will take much more than my agreement, at best I will abstain from voting.

So far, the way I saw it, since Ashcroft covered the ‘justice tit’ in DC, the Republican Party is not better than the government of other countries that uses ‘god’ as an excuse for every action and policy. THAT scares the **** out of me.

It is time to cull the elephant herd and go ‘a hunting’.

B. Obama has a job to do and the job is much bigger than common folks will ever realize. It is not about being ‘president’ but about setting a comprehensive agenda that will allow the US and the World to recover. That recovery will take years, if not decades.

As for B. Obama? He represents hope*, still. That hope is patient and does not require deadlines or flamboyant actions. That hope is long term, for the future of the US and the World.

9 months is nothing, not even a drop in the river of time, a ripple in the US history. It also is significant on a personal level as a child can be given birth during that period, a child that needs to be able to grow up, not stifled by ‘well intentioned’ family members who yell at each other over the cradle.

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Oh, yeah, God exists. Did he not say ‘Stay out of politics’ in not so many world?
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* The ‘Nobel peace prize’ given to B. Obama could have been a joke had it not been so symbolic. It reflects the hope the World has with the US having a new leader. As such, the prize is not for B. Obama per say but for all who selected to vote against a party and ‘person’ that have worsened every facet of life in this planet.

What a WHINER. Every President, no matter Democrat or Republican, has inherited something that either needed to be changed or they felt the need to change. If Obama was the very first President he would be complaining that he had to start from scratch, so nothing is his fault. If there is one thing the Democrats are really good at it is not taking responsibility for anything. There is always someone or something else to blaim.

president obama was put ito office by mainly white people. why are a lot of people knocking him. he took office from a man who was without a doubt the lowest person who has ever been in that office. i know deep down imside of him he is trying. but just like the elephants that would not let president clinton do his job while president they are there knocking on president ombambe’s door.let the man do his job. i think that there should be a law against putting down any president of the u.s.a. it does not matter who is in office of either party we are all americans white,
brown, black, red ,yellow. so what if he is 1/2 white 1/2 black. let the man do his job and please get a new mop republicans.and shut up……………..

I love that Obama is finally coming out of his shell a bit and using that first-rate intellect to communicate bluntly. He has been patient and tactful, which is an appropriate way to begin a dialogue, but if the Republicans cannot respond to being kindly invited to participate, things need to escalate. The open treason of the Republican party that is and has been taking place under the guise of patriotism is the next thing he needs to address.

Finally a little push-back. Republican “the market can police itself” policies got us into this mess, and he hasn’t even been in office for a year yet. That’s not enough time to make any judgment calls about the effectiveness of his policies. GWB always says history will be his judge. Same goes for Obama, but his policies are not history yet.

Obama, give it up. You can only blame Bush so long. Why don’t you appoint a Czar to blame everything on! We are not and do not wnat to become a socialist country. Men have died so this would not happen.Quit giving speaches and start making decisions.

WOW, cant believe the biased delusion of some comments here. Demonizing GWB as one person, or the Republican party as the one group, who brought the whole WORLD economy to chaos is the argument of a simpleton. Equally delusional is the position that Clinton and the Democrats set the stage for todays problems. PEOPLE need to drop their party bigotry, and evaluate politicians objectively, or these disasters will continue. If YOU have voted for one party continuously then YOU are the problem, because no single single party is constantly the best choice. Only a simpleton would believe that.

Perhaps Bush made mistakes, but he acted, humbly and with the best interest of the country, not caring what people thought of him; he himself had inherited an interesting situation. Obama has done nothing but make things worse. He was elected because he promised to fix things; I’m sorry, but he is egotistical and needs to stop complaining about his job. If he was incapable of following through on his promises, he should have backed out of the race.

It seems to me that most people are delusional. He has not done anything to help the country financially. If anything he has helped it go into the slump that Bush pushed it into. The bail-outs were nothing more then a transfer of wealth.

Unemployment will get worse, as will the economy. You can’t print money without it affecting inflation, savings and jobs. We have had easy credit without savings for too long and have been drunk with it. Now we have a bankrupt country, over 10% unemployment (look at independent studies, not the one the white house gives out) and a dollar that will likely spiral into hyper inflation.

I won’t sit here and blame it on any one president or party. This has been going on for decades, we are just starting to see the effects of terrible money policies. We have a bubble/burst every 10 years roughly, and it is because of the fed policies and it will get worse before it truly gets better.

Please read Jacques comment. It almost made me cry. Before Bush, I did not even know that Fox news was a Republican TV station. I had nothing against the Republicans. But since Bush, and now after hearing those hate spewing Republicans pray for Obama’s and therefore America’s failure, I have told myself, I will never again vote Republican. Never.

Obama is steering the car now. He gets to take the complaints. Just like the democrats complained for the last eight years.

It is unlikely that all Republicans are hate filled, or praying for Obama’s failure. And even if they were, this has no bearing on whether Obama actually succeeds or not.

The reality is that if Obama fails, the faith in him was misplaced. If you are going to win an election by telling simple folk that you will fix the country, it is a bit pathetic to then complain about how hard the job is.

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Caren has covered the White House since 2003. In 2008, she was a lead correspondent covering President Barack Obama's campaign. She has covered international summits, the federal budget, U.S. policy on Iraq and Afghanistan, and has reported extensively on the U.S. economy. Caren joined Reuters in 1992. Caren is president of the White House Correspondents Association.